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By Modou Kanteh
Honourable Madam Amie Fabureh has reminded staff of the Ministry of Agriculture that retreat means a moment of stock taking, reflection, planning and budgeting of programs and activities for 2021. The Minister made this remark on Monday 25 January 2021, while officially opening a four days retreat for her Ministry at Jarra Jenoi, Lower River Region.
“The event is more important at this moment than ever because of the double negative effects of climate change and covid-19,” the Minster said. She said the covid-19 pandemic has brought to light many vulnerabilities and inequalities in food system in the Gambia. Hon. Amie Fabureh noted that the lock down has hamper farmer’s ability to have access to inputs, access to hire labor and market to sell their products. She observed that the covid-19 strategy implemented in 2020 has gone a long way in building the resilience and improving food and nutrition security of the small-holder farmers.
The agriculture minister applauded partners like IFAD, FAO, WFP, Japanese and the Chines governments for their support to her ministry.
The Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture called on his colleagues at the ministry to continue to work hard so ensure that the people of the Gambia are not disappointed. He said as a ministry of agriculture the people of The Gambia have high expectation from the ministry.
“We want to take our time to access and evaluate our past activities,” P S Sissaho told the gathering. He said the ministry of agriculture has a lot of potentials and is just a matter of harnessing those potentials.
During these four days, most of the institutions under the ministry are expected to make a presentation of their activities in the past year. And these presentations would help to shape the future direction of the ministry of agriculture. About 60% of the population of Gambians is directly or indirectly involved in agriculture.